The US Department of Defense has awarded biotechnology firm Cerus Corporation an $8.7 million follow-on contract to develop a solution for traumatic injury bleeding in warfighters.
The agreement builds on a $9.1 million award in November 2022 to produce pathogen-reduced lyophilized cryoprecipitate (LyoCryo) to treat bleeding due to trauma.
‘Life-Saving’ Solution
According to Cerus, massive traumatic bleeding is the leading cause of death in US civilians under 45.
The complication can be treated during a “golden hour,” a critical time requiring resuscitation with blood transfusion for a bleeding patient. However, current blood technologies are not feasible in combat environments at the point of injury.
LyoCryo is being made for availability, shelf stability, and portability to increase the survival of military personnel inflicted with traumatic injury bleeding in remote environments.
Furthermore, the solution aligns with the US Army Combat Casualty Care Research Program in prioritizing the optimized recovery and survival of soldiers with combat-related injuries.
“Massive hemorrhage in trauma remains a critical unmet need today, both in military and civilian settings. At Cerus, we are focused on enabling patient access to life-saving blood products when needed,” Cerus Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Laurence Corash explained.
“LyoCryo is designed with the potential to deliver important clotting factors in a pathogen reduced, temperature stable format, thereby facilitating hemorrhage control on the battlefield as well as in other rural or remote settings, when time to transfusion is critical.”
LyoCryo Progress
The LyoCryo project’s regulatory pathway and potential clinical trial design were submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after funding last year.
Since then, the initiative has bolstered related processes for treatment maturation and acquired prototype materials for DoD assessment.
The latest contract will further support LyoCryo manufacturing process requirements, enhance associated manufacturing technologies, and advance data completion for FDA regulatory review.